For $2.5m Port Fairy property is going, going ... not gone

TWO parties are showing interest in a landmark Port Fairy property that was passed in at auction on Saturday.

Bidding for Oscars Waterfront Boutique Hotel opened on a vendor’s bid of $2.5 million, but failed to attract any offers from the 100-plus strong crowd.

The seven-bedroom hotel on the Moyne River was offered by hockingstuart, South Yarra, and Stockdale and Leggo of Port Fairy.

Stockdale and Leggo director Michael Hearn said the property attracted good interest before the auction, with information sent out statewide and nationally.

Mr Hearn said one party from Port Fairy and another from outside the district had expressed interest after the auction.

“We’re yet to achieve a result,” he said.

“Certainly with a property like this it’s usual that the parties are doing their due diligence.”

He was optimistic that a sale would eventuate from one of the parties: “The right noises are being made.”

Mr Hearn said there was no doubt an auction — rarely held in the coastal town — was the right selling style for Oscars.

“It brings it to a head and you’d only do it with a specific property.”

The hotel is on a 966-square-metre block close to the wharf, opposite the yachting marina and just a block from the town centre. It features a large drawing room, separate dining room, kitchen, huge wine cellar, five first-floor bedrooms, all with their own en suites, a separate rear building with two more bedroom suites and a double garage.

Mr Hearn said there was no question the top end of the property market across Australia had slowed, but Oscars had special appeal because it featured on every postcard and picture book depicting the picturesque Moyne River.

It was also in a town that had now achieved status as the world’s most livable community with a population of under 20,000.